Simple Strategy #2: Manage Internet Teams & BDCs Like Call Centers

 

Simple Strategy #2: Manage Internet Teams & BDCs Like Call Centers

TRANSCRIPT:

Simple Strategy Number 2 for closing more internet deals today? It’s simple. Manage your internet teams and BDC’s like they’re call centers.

Because they ARE call centers.

See, here’s the problem: Your old-school management style just doesn’t cut it when the prospect is sitting at home and your sales people or your BDC agents are sitting at their desks. You can’t use the same tactics. You can’t use the same word tracks that you use in person.

For example: You can’t do a needs analysis over the phone. You used to be able to do a needs analysis over the phone but this isn’t 1985. Today the prospects do their own needs analysis.

See, the reality is – you cannot sell an empty seat. What does that mean? It means that when you provide all the information; when you take them through all the steps on the road to the sale when you are on the phone with them, you are not going to get them into the dealership. When you have someone on the phone, whether you’re an internet sales person selling end-to-end or you’re a BDC agent who sets appointments, you have one goal and that’s an appointment that shows.

It’s the ONLY goal.

When you try to build value in your dealership on the phone, when you spend a lot of time doing needs analysis, product selection, doing pros and cons, doing product comparisons, your prospect is less likely to show up at your dealership. So, the reality is, and you have to understand this, you cannot sell an empty seat. There is an inverse relationship between information exchanged and appointments shown. They are less likely to show for an appointment the more information you give them over the phone.

So, whats the solution? Drive the activities, not the results. Your internet team or your BDC is a call center. Treat them as such. The great call centers in America, whether it’s a bank call center, a credit card call center, a time-share call center, a gym call center, whatever it is – they work on the activities. They make sure their teams are on the phone making the calls. They have a set number of calls each day that they want their teams to make. There are only three activities that you need to worry about for an internet sales team or a BDC and they are phone calls, phone calls and, you guessed it, phone calls. These are the only activities that I need to drive.

So when I drive the activities, the results will follow. Now, just like a great call center, I’m going to have strict adherence to process and strict adherence to the word tracks that my team uses. This is a problem when you have an end-to-end internet team and they are scattered throughout the dealership. They can be using any word tracks they want. They can be following any process they want. So, even if you employ an end-to-end internet team in your dealership, my recommendation to you is to have them come to a central location to make all their calls. That way you can make immediate course corrections.

Great call centers understand something about immediate course corrections. They understand what they are doing day-in and day-out. In the automotive business, we like to look at results at the end of the month and then make corrections but great call centers don’t do that. They understand that, basically, they are training a puppy. They can’t wait till the end of the month to decide if the puppy has learned it’s lessons or not. They have to make course corrections throughout the month. So, they sit side-saddle, they sit behind, they listen in on calls as the calls are being made. If their teams aren’t following the proper processes, if their teams aren’t following the proper word tracks, they can make immediate course corrections that drive the results they’re looking for.